Review Summary: Impressive and consistent display of porg/power metal but never quiet reaches 100%
Despite being an Australian, The Fourth Season was actually the first album that I heard from this Aussie power metal band. These guys do possess the necessary chops to play prog metal but calling these guys 'progressive' is a bit of a stretch in my opinion, I feel that they aren't really pushing any musical boundaries, they are pretty much walking paths already paved for them by bands like Evergrey, Kamelot, Dragonland and Vanden Plas. However they do pull this sound off rather well and can quiet easily compete with and even top some of these European and American power/prog bands. The most basic way I could describe these guys is basically by saying that they are more or less Australia's answer to Evergrey, but this comment doesn't really do them justice. They play a brand of commonly European prog/power metal that relies largely on atmospheric keyboards, uplifting melodies, groovy chug riffs, maiden-esque guitar harmonies and soaring vocals.
Despite maybe a lack of originality these guys do put a stamp on this brand of metal and do have a unique sound that could be recognisable as their own and their performance is excellent. These guys do create a kind of dreamy sound scape with heavy chugging riffs with a soft synth melody often floating underneath, the riffs are often simple power chords played with the purpose of providing a heavy and powerful sound which is woven with pretty guitar harmonies inbetween. Silvio Massaro's powerful mid range vocals are breathtaking at times, the man really knows his voice and how to use it to great effect.
On The Fourth Season the band really do take their songwriting abilities to a new level. Those who are familiar with this bands past releases, especially the last album 'Embrace the Silence' will know that these guys are already decent enough songwriters. I guess on the new album the band have kind of 'trimmed the fat' or so to speak, they have removed a lot of the big campy keyboard melodies and replaced them with a darker atmospheric sound. The song lengths have been trimmed down a bit and the vocals have taken an even bigger role, the vocal harmonies are really the jewel of this album. Just listen to the vocal harmonies in the lead single 'Surrender' or the uplifting 'Wake Me' and tell me that they don't just make your heart melt.
Unfortunately this album does suffer in the same way that the last album did, the songs tend to be a bit formulaic and a bit typical for this style of metal. Most of the songs on this album plod along at a medium foot-tapping pace and rarely deviate into really fast or really slow territory. However, there is some of the strongest songs of Vanishing Points career on this album like the aforementioned 'Surrender' and 'Wake Me' as well the very power-metalish 'Hope Among the Heartless' the heavy ballad-esque 'One Foot In Both Worlds' and the final song 'A Day Of Difference' which reminds me much of Dream Theaters 'Space Dye Vest'. Unfortunately some of the big guitar solo's from the last album (see 'Season Of Sundays') have been removed and replaced by simple melodies and phrases. None of the songs are bad but they are all basically the same tempo with really similar song structures and similar melodies so while all the songs are good, its a struggle to find particular highlights throughout the album.
For power/prog metal fans there really is not much to complain about, the performance is strong, the production is crystal clear and the songs are really catchy. The only thing that could be a down point is probably how typical these guys sound for this style of metal. This is arguably VP's best release to date and Silvio really shows that he is one of metals shining stars behind the mic. These guys do deserve to be up their amongst the Evergrey's and Kamelots and so on but I feel these guys are yet to fully unleash their greatest sound. A decent album for power/prog metal.
Highlights: One Foot In both Worlds, Surrender, Wake Me, Hope Among The Heartless, Embodiment.
